Gideon Oliver, the forensic an­thro­pol­o­gist saddled with the un­for­tu­nate
nickname of the "Skeleton Detective" by the press,
is on vacation in the Scilly Isles, with his wife Julie.
She’s par­tic­i­pat­ing in a small biennial colloquium organized by an
eccentric Russian mil­lion­aire.

Naturally, he happens upon a bone fragment,
which leads him to a dis­mem­bered corpse,
who turns out to be an attendee of the previous colloquium.

The main characters are likeable and,
despite the somewhat gruesome de­scrip­tions of skeletons and post­mortems,
it’s an enjoyable, well-plotted whodunnit.